Are you talking about homebrewers? That's true -I do some myself, though my focus is mead, not beer- but I was thinking more in terms of fashion than of hobbies.

no, i hadnt had my coffee yet and my fingers were apparently being dumb.

Hooping hippies, was where I was going with that. for an activity, and a fashion sense. basically, i mean festival culture. while i'm no expert at trends or figuring out what will hit "mainstream", it is really taking off.

gshepnyc:I know people are weary of steampunk but I don't find it anymore tiresome than that heavily armored supersoldier aesthetic that comes out of gaming and animation, the one with gigantic feet and legs and head hidden between armored shoulders and always carrying a cannon for a gun or a sword with a blade the size of a surfboard. Sick to death of that.

Where is this occuring in the fashion industry or real life military? Would be interesting to see some examples. Or are you just referring to video games/toys/etc.?

JonnyBGoode:DarkSoulNoHope: geekbikerskum: Ikam: Steampunks are just goths that discovered the color brown.

Came here to say this.

Came here to hear this and deny it. Based on what I have witnessed, it's a bunch of geeks that read H.G. Wells instead of Edgar Allen Poe.

/brown looks like crap//purple is awesome!

Also denying it. I am not now nor have I ever been "Goth". Though there are quite a few Goth Steampunks. Actually, a friend of mine does a seminar panel on the subject of steampunk being a "super-culture", accepting and drawing ideas from other subcultures such as Goth, Cyberpunk, etc.

I don't have a lot of brown in my steampunk attire. Unless you count my gold brocade waistcoat. Mostly black, red and grey, with some yellow accents. Steampunk is what you make of it.

/A purple jacket or waistcoat would be a nice addition...

I've been Goth all of my adult life (I'm 31) and I have never felt the urge to wear cogs, goggles, or brown and have never seen any fellow Goths jump into that. I am sure there are a few crossovers, but certainly not enough to justify that meme.

I don't know how I got on this store's catalog mailing list, but they sell renaissance, mythical, and steampunk gear for what I can only figure are 40+-somethings.... and the clothes comes in "goddess" sizes: www.pyramidcollection.com

give me doughnuts:WhippingBoy: give me doughnuts: WhippingBoy: give me doughnuts: Steampunk always makes me think of the Neo-Victorians in Diamond Age, and the alternate history in The Difference Engine.Kind of a wierd intersection between the two.

Either way, it's William Gibson's fault.

Really? Steampunk makes you think of two steampunk novels? How bizarre.

Let me guess. Those are only considered steampunk novels by the ignorant and stupid. "Real" steampunk fans (like yourself) know better.

Difference Engine: I will grant you that, even though there is lack of steam-powered flying machines, submarines, and the more fantastical elements in a lot of the genre.Diamond Age: No steam. Electronics and nanotechnology.

Not sure if you are serious, but a wood-paneled laptop isn't steam-powered either. The "steam" in steampunk is a metaphor.

DarkSoulNoHope:I've been Goth all of my adult life (I'm 31) and I have never felt the urge to wear cogs, goggles, or brown and have never seen any fellow Goths jump into that. I am sure there are a few crossovers, but certainly not enough to justify that meme.

Really? I'm in an industrial metal band, and I'm a sci-fi author. So I know a buttload of goths and steampunks, and I'd say the crossover is around 90%. Maybe it's a regional thing.

StrangeQ:moothemagiccow: Wait... your problem is not tolerating people following popular trends and they're the ones with first world problems?

Tolerating? No, I'm just pointing out how completely idiotic the entire concept is of trying to recon a bunch of modern technology into preindustrial methodology when the only thing that made that technology possible was our transition away from said methodology.

Eh, a lot of steampunk isn't very attractive, but some of it actually IS art.You may be one of those people who think art is 'idiotic', but I'm not...there's more to life than pure function, if you're not starving like the poor people in your Boobies.

WhippingBoy:Millennium: keypusher: Not sure if you are serious, but a wood-paneled laptop isn't steam-powered either. The "steam" in steampunk is a metaphor.

Only in steampunk fashion. In literary or other forms, it's supposed to be taken seriously.

According to who? Is there some "steampunk" governing body that we don't know about? Or are you just talking out of your ass again?

... but ... isn't 'steampunk' supposed to be re-imagining the world as if steam power ruled the day and all technological progress that followed? wouldn't taking the 'steam' out of steampunk literature be like taking the 'atomic' out of retro-50s atomic age punk? steampunk is great when it makes both the viewer and the creator think. slapping gears and valves all over something is not thinking. but coming up with a plausible reason why a particular gadget or article of gear would exist in this alternative reality... that's awesome. that's what should make steampunk cool.

so, no, there isn't a steampunk governing body; yet Millenium is right. steampunk lifts itself up when it reaches beyond rule of cool. at least, to me.

/even fairies and orcs and elementals have to make sense in-universe//could most bad sci-fi and fantasy become good sci-fi and fantasy by adhering to in-universe plausibility?

CtrlAltDestroy:WhippingBoy, I generally like you as a farker/poster. But today you seem to have a huge stick jammed up your ass. I don't get it. Or maybe you just have some bone to pick with steampunk in general?

In this thread? I thought I was being civil and at least somewhat intelligent... (other threads... not so much...)

I think the problem is that I quite like steampunk (at least in small doses), and had hoped that other steampunk fans wouldn't have the same tired "I liked steampunk before it was cool" and "THAT'S not steampunk. THIS is steampunk" attitudes.

I've always preferred wearing suits and dressing up to dressing down and being a slouch, so I enjoy dressing steampunk. The only problem is it takes a bit longer to dress steampunk than to put on a normal suit-and-tie.

I love steampunk, although I am too old/fat to wear the fashions. Got into it via Deadlands and then Briscoe County Jr (which I see has already been posted, thank you farkers, I love you guys) and of course Wild, Wild West reruns when I was a kid but I don't think it was called steampunk back then, not sure. Tons of great books out there too written in the genre. The Windup Girl by Paulo B is on my list to read here soon. But, like most trends/fads, many of us grow out of them after a while. Except for Star Trek, of course. No, I wouldn't dress up for that one either, I just like the shows.

specialkae:I love steampunk, although I am too old/fat to wear the fashions. Got into it via Deadlands and then Briscoe County Jr (which I see has already been posted, thank you farkers, I love you guys) and of course Wild, Wild West reruns when I was a kid but I don't think it was called steampunk back then, not sure. Tons of great books out there too written in the genre. The Windup Girl by Paulo B is on my list to read here soon. But, like most trends/fads, many of us grow out of them after a while. Except for Star Trek, of course. No, I wouldn't dress up for that one either, I just like the shows.

Thats the thing about steampunk though. You don't have to be Slim McHardbody to look good in steam wear. There were plenty of Victorian gentlemen who weren't in the best of shape but still looked good in a nice suit, waistcoat, and hat. I'm a bit heavy too and I've gotten a fair number of compliments on my outfit.

Steampunk is stupid because the very premise of it makes absolutely no sense. You're not going to make a farking microcircuit out of brass, polished wood and patent leather. The very technologies that make the modern world possible are exactly the same ones the ones in steampunk obsolete and rediculous.

First world hipster problems:Oh woe is me, where will I ever find wood with the proper brain and texture for my retro-chic laptop?[needsmoresteam.com image 850x842]

Real world problems:I wonder if I can eat wood? Could it be food?[www.rescue.org image 562x374]

fark those Africans. Stupid farkers have been starving to death for the last 30 years, you would think they would farking die all ready.

Steampunk is stupid because the very premise of it makes absolutely no sense. You're not going to make a farking microcircuit out of brass, polished wood and patent leather. The very technologies that make the modern world possible are exactly the same ones the ones in steampunk obsolete and rediculous.

Charles Babbage had plans for a working computer in the 1850s. Ada Lovelace had designs for a programming language that would work on such a machine. Babbage could never get funding to complete his designs, but steampunk asks "what if?" If Babbage had developed his computer and got it working, the digital age would have started a hundred years earlier, and have been based on racks and pinions instead of microchips. Sure, the machines would have been enormous at first. But if technology increased as it has in the modern computer age, with an analog of Moore's Law in place, what might the world have looked like a hundred years hence?

JonnyBGoode:StrangeQ: What if the Victorians had access to digital technology?

Steampunk is stupid because the very premise of it makes absolutely no sense. You're not going to make a farking microcircuit out of brass, polished wood and patent leather. The very technologies that make the modern world possible are exactly the same ones the ones in steampunk obsolete and rediculous.

Charles Babbage had plans for a working computer in the 1850s. Ada Lovelace had designs for a programming language that would work on such a machine. Babbage could never get funding to complete his designs, but steampunk asks "what if?" If Babbage had developed his computer and got it working, the digital age would have started a hundred years earlier, and have been based on racks and pinions instead of microchips. Sure, the machines would have been enormous at first. But if technology increased as it has in the modern computer age, with an analog of Moore's Law in place, what might the world have looked like a hundred years hence?

To continue, if I may (I hit Add instead of Preview, oops): Practical steampunk, however, is not the same as science-fiction steampunk. By practical I mean steampunk as practiced/dressed/lived by the subculture. That form of steampunk has little to do with the sci-fi aspect; it is more of a rebellion against the cookie-cutter, plastic, throw-away society that commercialism spawned, a society where attire has also become sloppy and cheap and human interaction crass and vulgar. Regardless of whether Victorians would have semiconductors, why can't computers (or other household items for that matter) be built with care, by craftsmen, or at least look like they were? Why do they all have to be beige plastic? Why can't people dress well and behave politely in society, instead of wearing their belts around their knees and using a four letter word for every other noun, verb, adjective, adverb and interjection in a sentence? That's what modern steampunk is really all about.

A trolly post that amounted to just "Stop liking what I don't like! I'm incapable of understanding other people's enjoyment of retro asthetics and technology and must instead think about this purely in terms of serious historical plausibility! All amusements are immoral until all misery is eliminated!" was the post of the thread to you? You sound... unhappy.